The future operation of Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson has been brought into question after the sudden and unexpected resignation of Rita Martin as the track’s general manager and promoter.

Martin, who was in her second year as Tri-County’s GM, tendered her resignation Monday morning, saying in an e-mail sent to area media, NASCAR short track and other touring series officials that ”I am forced by the owners to walk away from my job.”

She has been replaced by Dominick Casola, the son of track owners Tony and Kim Casola and a competitor in the track’s truck division.

“I love doing what I do here,” Martin’s e-mail continued. “It’s been a great experience, but I can no longer take the insults, intimidation and disrespect from the owners and their sons Dominick and Joey, all because I follow the rules as I was paid to do.

“I wish you all the best of luck with the track as you continue to work with them. In all reality, they are great people to work for. There was just several things that we did not see eye to eye with, and I can no longer do things their way as I feel in my heart are not the right thing to do.”

In a telephone interview later Monday, Martin said her resignation came as a result of an appeal filed by a driver competing in the track’s truck division after last Friday’s race.

The driver, Jason Crouse, filed the appeal after he was disqualified when a post-race inspection found that the racing fuel in his truck did not match the kind approved for use at Tri-County Motor Speedway.

In the appeal, a sample of the fuel in Crouse’s truck was sent to the NASCAR Technical Center in Concord for analysis. Martin said the analysis confirmed the track’s decision, and the DQ stood.

However, Martin accused the Casolas’ son, Dominick Casola — who also races in the truck division at TCMS — of giving his parents misleading information about the appeal, leading to what she called an “ugly” voice mail and e-mail from Tony Casola.

“The owner’s son went and told the owner a bunch of stuff about that fuel ... that I told you was illegal Friday night,” Martin said.

“Jason Crouse was appealing the decision, so I told him that as soon as Lynn Carroll (NASCAR’s director of weekly racing) contacted me, I’d be more than happy to send his fuel down to Concord today so NASCAR could test it, because he didn’t agree with our decision.

“So Dominick e-mailed his dad that I was the one having the fuel retested, and that I would put legal fuel in the bottle before I had it tested just so I could screw him over,” Martin alleged, referring to Dominick Casola.

“Well, his dad called and left me an ugly voice mail, and left me an ugly e-mail. I just said, ‘He’s not going to talk to me like that. He’s not going to insult me and threaten me like that,’ so I turned my keys in today.”

Martin’s allegations are supported by a series of e-mails — one from Dominick Casola, the second from Tony Casola, currently on vacation in Italy with the rest of his family — obtained by the News-Topic.

In Dominick Casola’s e-mail to his father, he wrote that Martin “should NOT give him a second chance to get a recheck on fuel, if it was me or any other class the driver would be thrown out of the event, she has the fuel taped up in a plastic water bottle and I bet she is going to switch it out with legal fuel before they re test it. I know she will to try and (expletive deleted) me over and it is (expletive deleted) that he gets a second chance because neither me or any driver in any class has ever or should ever get a second tech chance,”

In Tony Casola’s response, which went to Dominick Casola and was forwarded to Martin, he wrote “we discussed this intervening (expletive deleted) before Rita, it is NOT YOUR BUSINESS to intervene DO NOT DARE send that fuel to nascar iT is what it is. tHERE IS NO NEGOTIATIING ON RACE NIGHT dOMINICKK THIS IS YOUR FATHER SPEAKING CALL rITA IMMEDIATELY AND TELL HER YOU ARE FORWARDING THIS FROM ME NOW i AM ON VACATION AND DO NOT NEED THIS AGGRAVATION i THOUGHT I MADE MYSELF CLEAR rITA THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE. yOU ARE NOT TO STICJK YOUR NOSE IN A TECH DECISION iT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS period!!! the end i WILL BE SPEAKING TO YOU WHEN I RETURN AND i am not happy.”

Attempts to contact Tony Casola directly via e-mail, or by phone through his Lenoir attorney Wallace Respess and through Mickey Caratella, a Lake Norman resident who Martin said oversees the finances at Tri-County Motor Speedway, were not successful as of press time.